France’s Total has emerged as the winning bidder in an intensely contested tender staged by Greek power utility PPC for three LNG shipments between March and May, sources from abroad have informed.

The French company outbid rivals for all three shipments, totaling 2.66 million MWh, but price levels were driven to particularly low levels as a result of intense bidding, the same sources noted.

Over the past few weeks, LNG prices in Asia have slumped to record lows, including yesterday, battered by the negative impact of the coronavirus on trade. Many Chinese factories have been forced to interrupt operations. Meanwhile, US LNG is flooding markets.

Given the combined effect of these market conditions, many of twelve bidders said to have participated in PPC’s tender were prepared to submit offers as low as one percent below the Dutch TTF index, which has tumbled to a level of approximately 10 euros per MWh over the past few days.

Of the twelve participants in the PPC tender, whose deadline expired on Wednesday, the five most competitive candidates were asked to make their best and final offers yesterday.

PPC wants a first LNG shipment of 900,000 MWh on March 24, a second delivery of 815,000 MWh on April 21 and a third of 950,000 MWh on May 20.

This tender confirms a change of strategy by PPC, searching markets around the world, from Asia to Qatar and the USA to Russia, for low-priced LNG.